North Range Behavioral Health expects financial hit after state awards contract to new provider

A North Range Behavioral Health worker takes a call in November at the downtown Greeley crisis walk-in center, 928 12th St.Natalie Dyer/For The Tribune

North Range Behavioral Health, Weld County’s behavioral
health provider, expects to take a financial hit after the state Department of
Human Services awarded a contract to a new provider in an effort to rework
Colorado’s crisis services system.

The state announced Tuesday it awarded a $2.1 million contract for Colorado’s northeastern region to Beacon Health Options, a Boston-based behavioral health company.

Joanna Sinnwell, the business development and marketing
manager for North Range, said North Range will continue to operate its 24/7
crisis services in Weld County and fully anticipates working with Beacon. But
under the new system, the provider will have less money to put toward programs
that served nearly 8,000 people in Weld County in 2018.

“We’ll still be here but with less money,” she said.

Sinnwell said the dollar amount of the cut and the impact to
service levels is not clear yet.

“The consequences of the reduced funding — both the dollar amount
and its effect, if any, on service levels — will become clearer as Beacon
begins to administer the contract, but we want to assure people that the North
Range commitment to providing quality services remains unchanged, regardless,”
Sinnwell wrote in an email.

North Range does not expect to lay off any employees as a
result of the change.

In a news release, Colorado Office of Behavioral Health
officials wrote the changes will take place this summer, and the regional
contractors, including Beacon, will provide a network of walk-in crisis
centers, crisis stabilization centers and respite and mobile crisis services.

North Range officials told The Tribune in November they were concerned the re-organization plan effectively shifts money out of the state’s Colorado Crisis Services program and into administration.

That’s because the new system separates the state into seven
regions instead of the four, including Weld and Larimer counties’ Northeast
Behavioral Health System, that have operated since 2014. Under a newly
organized system, Weld County will no longer receive money from the same pool
as Larimer County, another highly populated county.

Larimer and Elbert counties — formerly part of the Northeast
Behavioral Health system with Weld — were moved into other systems as part of
the state’s reorganization. The change is expected to dramatically affect the
population numbers, and as a result, the amount of money local crisis programs
get from the state. The change shifted 48.7 percent of the population into a
new region.

Contracts awarded by the state

A map of regions that will receive crisis services under a new Colorado Office of Behavioral Health crisis services system.

Region 1: Rocky Mountain Health Plans, $7.5 million

Region 2: Beacon Health Options, $2.1 million

Region 3: No award

Region 4: Health Colorado, $2.7 million

Region 5: Signal Behavioral Health Network, $2.9 million

Region 6: Signal Behavioral Health Network, $3.6 million

Region 7: Beacon Health Options, $3.1 million

North Range officials have been bracing for Tuesday’s news
since late 2018, when the state announced it would rework its funding system.

The state’s announcement prompted the Weld County Board of
Commissioners to send letters to former Gov. John Hickenlooper and the state’s
Joint Budget Committee opposing the new approach.

Larry Pottorff told The Tribune in November he was concerned
that under the new system, money will go into administrative oversight — not
the crisis services that are available all day every day through North Range.

Additionally, he was concerned about the timing of the
announcement. The proposal went out to bidders in September, two months before
Colorado elected a new governor.

Still, Sinnwell said, there’s a chance providers will band
together to appeal the decision.

In the state’s news release, officials wrote the department
changed the crisis system because contracts were scheduled to expire.

“Stakeholder and consumer feedback, including the work of the
Crisis Steering Committee, prompted changes to the crisis system, such as
more focus on mobile response and coordination with law enforcement and others
responding to behavioral health emergencies to get people connected to care,”
officials wrote.

Robert Werthwein, the director of the Office of Behavioral Health,
said in the release the changes will allow the department to better track
health by community.

“We hope that by expanding focus on mobile services, and aligning with county efforts for these services, we can bring care to people in their homes and communities when they need it most,” he said.

— Sara Knuth covers government for The Tribune. You can reach her at (970) 392-4412, sknuth@greeleytribune.com or on Twitter @SaraKnuth.